Island Pan — Restaurant in Asheville

I was looking forward to this meal because I haven't had Jamaican food since I ate at Anthony's in Charlotte about 15 years ago and remembered loving it, especially the jerk chicken. It is in a mall food court, the mall looks kind of empty. Don't get me started on that sketchy parking garage! Anyway, I found the restaurant and was met by a cafeteria style layout of, let's face it, not a lot of offerings. I was confused by where I should get in line, service first or cashier? There was a couple being served and she did not seem thrilled with her service and was minute detailing her order. It took them 10 minutes to get two plates. Well, I finally figured out it was service first. When it was my turn, the server must have been worn out. He seemed to not have the energy to speak above a mumble. I only wanted the bbq jerk chicken, the regular jerk chicken looked dessicated, no rice, some cabbage and callaloo. Turns out they didn't have the greens that day, the rest of the sides were just sorry looking mac and cheese and yams that looked as if they had already been eaten. So, I just settled for extra cabbage. I also got a side of curry goat, it looked fresh and mouthwatering. When I checked out , the cashier looked worn out too and shell shocked, which is how I felt when she told me that my order was $25. My plate was only a medium with 3 chopped pieces of chicken, not whole pieces, and cabbage. The chicken pieces were about about 4 inches long and probably not 2 inches wide, mostly bone. To make things worse it was covered in some sort of BBQ sauce and covered up any real jerk seasoning on it. The cabbage was stringy, tough and greasy. How do you make tough cabbage? The saving grace was the curried goat. It was succulent and had a mild curry flavor. It was delicious. This is the only reason I would go back, unless it looked like it had been sitting in the warming pan too long, then I would walk on by. Be careful if you get it though, it is loaded with tumeric and will stain everything it touches. Very...

On a Friday, I had taken off work and decided I wanted to surprise the wife with lunch. We had been wanting Jamaican food for a few years, now. Since we had been dissatisfied with the last time we had some Jamaican food at a community event a few years ago, and we had given up hope. Then I saw the posts for ISLAND PAN in the mall and decided to grab some for our lunch yesterday at 12:30.

First off, I asked for the Curry Goat as I love a good goat curry. Unfortunately, they only had Chicken Curry. The curry was an umami bomb but had 0 spice. I got yellow rice and mac n cheese, which were both flavorful and pasta was not overcooked. The curry sauce had invaded the Mac n cheese, but it made it even better than without it. I ordered the Jerk Chicken for her, with rice and peas and plantains. The jerk chicken was well seasoned and just sweet enough, but it wasn't spicy at all. Rice was not mushy, peas fully cooked and great with the sauce drizzled on it. Plantains were OK, but we may be spoiled from our island vacations, as they weren't anything special.

I ordered a beef patty and coco bread, but no coc bread was available. I ordered the cheese patty, but it was not available as well, so I settled on 2 beef patties. I'm not sure if I lucked out or not, but those beef patties were the best thing we ate. A spicy ground beef mixture encased in a flakey crust that was a 10/10 for us.

The magic markered food prices weren't what was shown on the internet but I'm fine with that because food costs. The biggest issue we had was food not being available, but for $15-20/person, we will 100% definitely be back because the portions are enough for 2-3 meals. I'll get the oxtail next time and hopefully the goat...

Not many options for Jamaican food in this town. It certainly tasted like they were trying to cater to the main stream here. Located in the mall food court. I suppose I shouldn't have had high expectations. I ordered 2 plates to get a sample of their offerings. While they gave me about six cups of rice per plate, the portion size of meat and sides left something to be desired.

Mac and cheese was really good - baked, cheesy and flavorful. Yams were a tada overcooked and mushy, but a nice sweet finisher to my meal. Yellow rice was moist but I'd prefer it to be cooked in chicken stock. Rice and peas were on the dry side. Cabbage was good, nothing to write home about. Jerk chicken was dry and bland. BBQ jerk chicken had good flavor on the skin, but that's about it. The oxtails were perfectly cooked as the meat was falling off the bone. Unfortunately, it just didn't have the flavor or kick of the Caribbean that I was looking for. Beef patties were slightly burned on the outside and dry on the inside. There were no Jamaican sodas, or festivals available when I stopped by an hour...